Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. shares rose the most in more than five months on renewed optimism that the chain can bounce back from its food-safety crisis.

Chipotle told analysts at an ICR conference in Orlando, Florida, that it can regain the trust of customers and restore its industry-leading restaurant margins, according to Howard Penney, a managing director at Hedgeye Risk Management who attended the talk. Chipotle also reiterated that it has no plans to slow the pace of new restaurant openings, with as many as 235 slated for 2016.

“The thing that matters most for the stock is that they believe they’re going to get back to where they were,” said Penney, who laid out a case to bet against Chipotle shares in November. The company contends that “it was a blip on the road to creating a big change in the way people eat,” he said.

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The remarks brought a ray of hope to investors after months of seeing the stock slide. More than US$10 billion in market value has been wiped out since August, when shares of the Denver-based company hit an all-time high of US$757.77. The company’s reputation, built on the promise of fast food made with locally sourced, fresh ingredients, has been damaged since it was linked a multistate E. coli outbreak.

The shares gained as much as 6.9 per cent to US$432.30 on Wednesday, the biggest intraday jump since July 22. The rebound follows a 30 per cent decline in 2015.

Chipotle, which has apologized for making customers sick, announced new protocols that it says will make it an industry leader in food safety. The chain’s sales slumped about 15 per cent in the fourth quarter following the E. coli outbreak and a separate norovirus incidentin Boston. Sales are expected to be negative at least until 2017, and analysts have argued that increased spending related to the crisis will weigh on margins.